The North Port Blog

    I have many Buyers asking me how to get their money for buying a home.  It is very simple, it will actually come back to you when you file your income taxes, so if you have someone that does your taxes professionally, they should have the proper form for you (form 5405), if you do your own taxes I would guess that programs online would provide it for you as well, but you can access this form from the IRS website, here is the direct link:  http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f5405.pdf

    If you have already filed your income taxes, you don't have to wait until next year just file an amendment to your taxes and you will be able to get your money back right away.  If you have any questions, I can answer general questions, but for specific refund questions please refer to the descriptions in the forms or contact a certified public accountant.

    Home insurance companies in Florida have begun to drop or not renew policies on homes that have been found to have Chinese drywall.  Homeowner's at a loss looking to rectify the Chinese drywall are calling their insurance companies hoping for some financial assistance, but instead are either having their policies dropped or are being given a time frame in which to replace the drywall otherwise they will be dropped.

    The average cost to replace the drywall and the corroded components runs from $80,000 to $100,000, which especially in today's economy is not in most peoples budget.  Citizen's Property Insurance, the non profit state created guaranteed insurance company is one of the companies who has confirmed that they have notified the policy holders of known Chinese drywall infected homes that they will have 6 months to repair it from the date of notice.  If your home has been built with Chinese drywall, there is a class action lawsuit with attorney's Morgan and Morgan and you can fill out an evaluation form at:  http://www.forthepeople.com/caseevaluation.htm to have your case evaluated to be part of the lawsuit.

    One of the most important steps to take, once you have decided that you want to purchase a home is getting pre-approved.  Contact a lender and they will ask you a series of questions that reflect your current financial status, and they will pull your credit.  This is the scary part for most people, because either they don't know what their credit looks like, what their scores are, or even if they know all that, they may not understand what it means. 

    Keep in mind that there are 3 main credit bureaus out there:  Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, and depending on the lender they may look at certain ones or a combination of all 3.  The actual FICO score (Fair Isaac Corp) can range from 300 to a high of 850, but may be different from any of the credit reporting agencies.  You can view what information is on your credit report once per year by visiting www.AnnualCreditReport.com but this will not show you your actual scores unless you pay for them, and keep in mind that those scores that you see could vary slightly from what the actual lender will see.

    Some things to keep in mind:

1.  Your credit score does not represent your financial health as a whole, it is just a snapshot at that exact moment of what has been reported, so your score can change each time something new is reported, as well as each time someone views your credit.

2.  Balances don't matter as much as paying on time.  You do want to have less than half of your credit used, but a major part of your credit score is paying your debts on time.

3.  Be careful who all you let make inquiries on your credit report because excessive inquires can and will lower your overall score.

     According to a recent study by Campbell Communications, only 23% of short sales make it to the closing table!  Most agents and customers blame the banks for the turnaround time and lack of man power causing the short sales to fall apart. 

    We have recently seen nearly all of the foreclosure properties get sold and closed off the market in the North Port area and mostly all we have left are short sales.  The truth of the matter is, the banks certainly do not make it easy on us to work the short sales, with lack of communication, disorganization, and lack of man power to handle the workload.  But also the agents involved in the short sale also have a major responsibility of knowing what the bank will require, where to price the property, and following up as often as possible. 

    Some promising news is that the Treasury Department is expecting to standardize some sort of documentation method for short sales which should speed up the process.  Hopefully they can get this done before we don't have a need for short sales any longer so we can really see the benefit.  In the meantime make sure that you choose an agent who is experienced in short sales, I started working short sales before most agents even knew what a short sale was.  I am here to help and I'm not afraid of short sales, so if you or someone you know is interested in short selling their home, or would like more information on what a short sale is, please let me know.